The Letter
by Flaming Trails
Summary: Updated! Three parts now: one for NonTrilogy, one for VDCs, one for Trilogy. How and when did Doc discover Marty's letter?
1. NonTrilogy

The Letter

A Back To The Future Story

By Flaming Trails

Disclaimer: I don't own BTTF. If I did. . . . Great. I can't think of anything.

Prologue

This is a two-part story detailing how Doc ended up reading that famous letter. The first part is what happened in all my BTTF universes ("World of Darkness, Normal Doc, etc.). The second part is an addendum to "Fight the Future", and tells what happened after Mystie hypnotized Doc'55.

  


Part 1

Tuesday, November 15th, 1955

Hill Valley

4: 03 P. M.

Doc Brown entered Lou's Cafe, shivering. "Great Scott, it's cold! And the precipitation doesn't help any." He looked at Lou, who was grumbling about one of the customers. "May I have a cup of coffee?"

"Sure. Cream and 2 sugars, right?"

"Precisely." Doc dug around in his pocket for a nickel while Lou prepared the requested drink. Suddenly, he frowned and extracted his hand. Caught in his fingers were several pieces of paper. _Now that's odd,_ Doc thought, examining them. _Why would I put paper in one of my coat pockets?_

Lou returned with the cup of coffee. "That'll be five cents, Brown. What's with the paper?"

"Damned if I know." Doc retrieved a nickel and handed it to Lou, then continued studying the papers. One of them had the address of the cafe on it. Another contained the year "1985". _Marty's letter!_ Doc realized with a jolt, flashing back to that fateful night three days ago. _I thought I had scattered this to the four winds. I must have accidentally shoved them in my pocket when that branch fell on the cable._ He shook his head with a frown. _No man should know too much about his own destiny. I've learned far too much about the future already. I should just throw these away and forget about them._

He stuck the pieces back into his pocket and began sipping his coffee. The letter's sudden reappearance had reminded him of how strange his life had been the last week. He had only just finished cleaning up all the things that could possibly jeopardize the space-time continuum. The diagram of the Town Square had been destroyed, and the toy car thrown out. He had disabled the cable hook-up that had allowed the 1985 camcorder to play on his 1955 TV. The fried cables and pole were in the garbage too, useless after having 1.21 gigawatts of electricity shot through them. Even Marty's 1955 clothes had been donated to Goodwill.

Marty. The name still made him smile. It had been nice, having another human presence around the mansion. It had made the place seem smaller and less lonely. The kid had certainly made a huge difference in his life. _Just think. Now I know I'm going to invent a time machine -- an invention that actually works, no less. I'll live to see 1985, and I'll get the change to explore the ages. I wonder if I'm married in the future? I know I do get a best friend. Great Scott, a best friend. I wonder if Marty knows how much that means to me? How much he means to me already?_ Doc chuckled._ I know him for a week and won't meet him for many years, and yet I still have such warm feelings toward him._ He frowned down at his pocket. _So why did he feel the need to mess with the future, after all my warnings? He should know that the only good future is the unknown one._

He finished off his coffee, thanked Lou, and left the cafe, noting with a smile that George and Lorraine had come in while he had been thinking. They were looking at each other with total adoration, happily eating some soup. _Ah, young love. Maybe one day I'll be blessed with such--_

"Hey, move it, butt-head!"

Doc turned to see Biff scowling at him. He moved out of the doorway and let the teen and his gang through. Each made it a point to give him a dirty look as they walked in. Biff remained outside for a moment. "Don't let me catch you in here again," he snapped. "People like you don't belong with people like us." Then he walked in and slammed the door.

Doc glared at him through the door a moment, then headed for his car. He was so glad George had decked that bully. It was about time that someone had gotten the better of him. _Another thing I can thank Marty for,_ he thought, getting behind the wheel and driving off.

As he drove, he found himself wondering about the contents of the letter. Why would Marty go to so much trouble to tell him about the future? Come to think of it, he had acted a little strangely during most of the week, starting on Tuesday when he had caught him watching that tape. In fact, whenever they watched it together, Marty had become oddly affected by it, to the point he would politely excuse himself whenever it was on. _What a strange reaction to a tape he said that he himself had filmed. It was only a science experiment, after all._

_Or was it?_

Doc frowned as he took a corner. The first time he had watched the ending of that film, he had gotten disturbed. His older self had seemed very scared right before the tape ended. His voice and eyes had given it all away. But what had scared him so? Marty had known, but he had had the sense to keep his mouth shut. Did the letter have something to do with that? Had something happened to his older self, something that Marty thought he could prevent in the past?

Doc's frown grew deeper as he recalled the rest of the teen's abnormal behavior patterns. He had said something very cryptic before his second attempt at telling him the future, "And I'm really going to miss you." Doc had never understood that comment, as Marty would be seeing him very shortly back in his own time. And then, after he had tried to yell the information to him during the cable crisis, it had seemed, just for a moment, that he hadn't wanted to leave. After all that fuss he had made about finally getting back to 1985, he had hesitated, actually said, "No, Doc!", at the crucial moment.

But the kicker was that hug Marty had given him once Doc had explained everything. Although Marty had shown himself amendable to hugs, this one had felt -- different. Sad. Like this was the last time he'd ever get to see his best friend. Doc had chalked it up at the time to the fear of getting killed in the experiment, but now he wasn't so sure. _Is it possible that I had died in the future and Marty wanted to see me alive?_

He pulled up to his garage, turned off the engine, and sat there for a moment. All those actions were starting to nag at him, and he felt the letter would help explain them. Plus, it was his one link to Marty not already destroyed. He really missed the kid, even after such a short period of time. _But no man should know too much about his own future,_ he told himself sternly as he headed up to the house. _I can't read it for the sake of the space-time continuum. If I keep it and--_

_Wait a moment. That's an idea. I could read it, but then destroy it. Burning it over a Bunsen Burner would be good. There's no way I'll be able to remember the exact contents in 30 years._ He chuckled as he opened the door. _Emmett, you really are a genius._

Copernicus welcomed him home with a set of happy barks. "Hello, Copernicus," he said, kneeling down and ruffling the puppy's fur. "Do you want to go for a walk?" Copernicus barked and jumped up and down. "Just a moment, then. I have to piece together this letter first. Go get your leash."

The dog ran off, having been trained to locate the item with scent. Doc smiled after him, then grabbed some scotch tape and a burner. He cleared off his workspace and set to work piecing the letter together. It was slow, tedious work, and twice Doc was tempted to quit and throw the pieces in the trash can. But the notion that Marty wouldn't have done all this if it weren't very important made him complete it. Sighing, he leaned back and read the words.

_Dear Dr. Brown,_

_On the night I go back in time, you will be shot by terrorists at 1: 30 A. M. Please take whatever precautions are necessary to prevent this terrible disaster._

_Your friend,_

_Marty_

Doc stared at the letter. Shot? By terrorists? Why? And for what? Did it have to do with the time machine?

Slowly, with shaking hands, he picked up the letter. And to think he had been determined to destroy it! Not now. He would keep that letter to 1985, and probably beyond, as a reminder of the friend who had risked the future for his life. As for the questions, those would be answered in due time. All he needed to do was make sure he was ready for the terrorists, and everything would stay on track. Maybe they made bullet-proof clothing in the future.

Reverently, he folded the letter and put it in his pocket. A final question occurred to him. How did his future self explain his reversal to Marty? The teen knew him as a stickler to that doctrine.

He smiled. "Well, maybe I'll just tell him I thought, 'What the hell.' Worth a shot, he knows I'm human." He looked at his dog, who had located his leash. "Come on, Copernicus. Let's take that walk. I need a break from all this time travel business." He got up -- then made another decision. He went upstairs and found the box with Marty's clothes in it. Just for memory's sake, he removed one of the outfits and put it back in his closet. Then he returned to Copernicus, thinking, _I've got 30 years to wait to catch up to Marty. Might as well make the most of them._


	2. After Fight the Future, VDCs

__Part 2

Tuesday, November 15th, 1955

Hill Valley

5: 16 P. M.

Doc Brown came awake with a slight moan. "Ouch," he muttered. "I should have been more careful. How in the name of Sir Issac H. Newton could I have forgotten that the string of flags was there?"

He realized the voices behind the billboard were gone. The time travelers had obviously departed. Saddened at having missed his chance to see the car, he got up and rubbed his head. _Well, that was certainly an adventure, against--_

_Against. . . ._

Doc frowned. For the life of him, he couldn't recall who had been mucking around in time. Come to think of it, his memory was pretty blurry on that pretty female time traveler's face too. _Must be from hitting my head. The memories were so fresh they were easily disrupted. Ah, well, no man should know too much about their own future anyway._

That reminded him -- Marty's letter was still in his pocket. He took the pieces out and looked at them again. It would be so easy to drop them to the ground and let them scatter in the winds and rot. But, for some reason, he felt a strong compulsion to go home and read it. It didn't matter what danger he could put the future or himself in, he had to read it. He had no choice. "What the hell," he said aloud, rationalizing it. "It _is_ my last tie to Marty and my future." He stuck the pieces back in his pocket and turned to go to his car.

Then he turned back. Something had caught his eye. He looked around to see a strange craft hovering overhead, lights on its belly. For a moment, Doc thought it was a UFO, like the one Otis Peabody had claimed wrecked his barn. Then he recognized it as the time vehicle -- in flight! Amazed, he stared a moment as it flew about, then waved to it. The car dipped down slightly -- maybe someone had waved back. Then it flew off and vanished into another time, leaving a set of brief fire trails in the sky. Doc silently wished his future self and his companions luck in stopping the evil time traveler.

Tuesday, November 15th

6: 01 P. M.

By the time Doc arrived home, the compulsion to read the letter was almost overpowering. He rummaged around for his house key, hoping he had tape inside. He might go crazy if he didn't read the letter soon.

Copernicus welcomed him home with a set of happy barks. "Hello, Copernicus," he said, kneeling down and ruffling the puppy's fur. "I saw Marty today. He insisted that I read this." He pulled out the letter pieces and looked at them. "I really shouldn't, but I have to. I suppose I'll tape it back up, read it, then burn it over the Bunsen burner. After all, it'll be 30 years before I see his teenage self again. I'll have surely forgotten the contents by then."

He sat down at his work table, currently covered with different blueprints for the time machine. He cleared a spot for himself and fetched some tape. Separating the envelope pieces from the actual letter itself, he began piecing it back together.

Halfway through, the scientist stopped himself. He shouldn't be obeying a compulsion to read the letter. He should be obeying a compulsion to _destroy_ it. He picked up the half-completed letter and the remaining pieces and went to the garbage can with them.

The urge drove him back to the table. He couldn't help it. It felt like, in a way, his brain wasn't his own on this point. Like someone had explicitly told him to read this letter, and to ignore all feelings to the contrary. Resigning himself to it, he kept putting the letter together. _Damn it, why is this so important? What could be so bad about my future that even my own _mind_ won't let me throw it away? Marty is a good kid and all, but he should know that messing with the past doesn't lead to good things in the future. He nearly ended up not existing! So why would he take that chance with me?_

Suddenly, a strangely appropriate memory popped into his brain -- watching the video tape Marty had made of the first time travel experiment. It had ended suddenly and disturbingly for him. All the rest of the week, he couldn't help but wonder who had found him and why he had been so afraid. Did the letter have to do with whoever had found him? Did it have to do with Marty's strange behavior the night of the dance? He had said some confusing things to the scientist that night -- "I'm really going to miss you too." "I have to tell you about the future! On the night I go back in time, you get--" And the hug he had given him before his intended departure was the topper. It had felt -- sad. Like this was the last time Marty was ever going to see him. At the time, Doc had chalked it up to a fear of getting killed if the experiment didn't work, but now he was wondering. _Did Marty mean _I_ was dead in the future?_

As soon as the thought popped into his mind, he dismissed it. It didn't make sense. If he _had_ been dead in the future, Marty wouldn't have come back to today, most likely. And he had even heard his older self's voice! The letter couldn't be _that _important.

Or could it?

Marty and the female had come from a time line that _hadn't_ involved them coming to today. And they had seemed extremely insistent on him reading that letter. Had he, in the original time line, read it and benefitted from it? And, if he didn't read the letter now, would he cause a life-ending paradox?

Worse, if he didn't read it, would he never meet Marty or that enchanting girl?

Mentally berating himself for thinking that a paradox would be less damaging then never meeting a potential girlfriend, Doc finished taping up the letter. He leaned over it and read Marty's scribbles:

_Dear Dr. Brown,_

_On the night I go back in time, you will be shot by terrorists. Please take whatever precautions are necessary to prevent this terrible disaster._

_Your friend,_

_Marty_

Doc stared at the letter. Shot? By terrorists? Why? And for what? Did it have to do with the time machine?

Slowly, with shaking hands, he picked up the letter. And to think he had been determined to destroy it! Not now. He would keep that letter to 1985, and probably beyond, as a reminder of the friends who had risked the future for his life. As for the questions, those would be answered in due time. All he needed to do was make sure he was ready for the terrorists, and everything would stay on track. Maybe they made bullet-proof clothing in the future.

Reverently, he folded the letter and put it in his pocket. A final question occurred to him. How did his future self explain his reversal to Marty? The teen knew him as a stickler to that doctrine.

He smiled. "Well, maybe I'll just tell him I thought, 'What the hell'. Worth a shot, he knows I'm human. I won't tell him about his intervention though, that would be liable to confuse the kid completely." He looked at his dog. "Come on, Copernicus. Let's take a walk. I need a break from all this time travel business." He got up -- then remembered something important. He went upstairs to find Marty's clothes in the Goodwill box. He quickly located the outfit he'd seen Marty wearing earlier and hung it back up in the closet. Besides insuring the future, it also made a nice keepsake of the boy. He then returned to his dog, thinking, _I've got 30 years to wait to catch up to Marty. Might as well make the most of them._

The End


	3. Trilogy

Part 3

Tuesday, November 15th, 1955

Hill Valley

4:03 P. M.__

Doc Brown entered Lou's Cafe, shivering. "Great Scott, it's cold! And the precipitation doesn't help any." He looked at Lou, who was grumbling about one of the customers. "May I have a cup of coffee?"

"Sure. Cream and two sugars, right?"

"Precisely." Doc dug around in his pocket for a nickel while Lou prepared the requested drink. Suddenly, he frowned and extracted his hand. Caught in his fingers were several pieces of paper. _Now that's odd,_ Doc thought, examining them. _Why would I put paper in one of my coat pockets?_

Lou returned with the cup of coffee. "That'll be five cents, Brown. What's with the paper?"

"Damned if I know." Doc retrieved a nickel and handed it to Lou, then continued studying the papers. One of them had the address of the cafe on it. Another contained the year "1985." _Marty's letter!_ Doc realized with a jolt, flashing back to that fateful night three days ago. _I thought I had scattered this to the four winds. I must have accidentally shoved the pieces in my pocket when that branch fell on the cable._ He shook his head with a frown. _No man should know too much about his own destiny. I've learned far too much about the future already. What with Marty suddenly showing up again, right after I sent him back to the future, and my 1985 self trapped in 1885, about to die. . . . I should just throw these away and forget about them. Or, better yet, make Marty take them back._

He stuck the pieces back in his pocket and sipped his coffee. He knew that he should be back at the lab, working on the time machine, but he had needed a break from the constant fiddling with vacuum tubes and wires. Marty had understood completely. "I know you'll get it, Doc," he had said, in an amazing display of faith. "You always do. Plus, it's a time machine, we've got all the time we want to save you."

Marty. Doc smiled. Although he had been absolutely shocked -- to the point of fainting -- when the teenager had returned, he was actually kind of glad he was back. He had so little contact with others lately, so it was nice to have another human presence around. He seemed to make the mansion smaller and less lonely. The kid had made a huge difference in his life. _Now I know I'm going to invent a successful time machine. A somewhat _too_ successful time machine, based on what Marty told me about Biff. My older self probably was thinking about that when he told Marty to destroy the DeLorean. Well, I'm sure it can be destroyed once Marty rescues my older self from a premature death in the past!_

_I wonder what else happens to me in the future. Do I have any other successful inventions? What other ages do I get to visit? Do I fall in love, get married? Well, probably not get married -- after all, there is the matter of "beloved Clara" on my older self's --_Doc took a moment to shudder _-- tombstone. Although I suppose it's not incomprehensible that I could be married, but being stuck in the past, I relented to the temptation to cheat. But I'd like to think I'm better than that._

_The only thing I know for certain is that I'm going to have a best friend. Imagine that, a best friend. I wonder if he knows how much he means to me._ Doc smiled to himself. _I've known him for little over a week, and won't meet him properly for many years, and already I have such warm feelings for him. _He frowned down at his pocket. _So why did he feel the need to mess with the future, after all my warnings?_

He finished off his coffee. "And a hot chocolate for my nephew back at the mansion, please," he told Lou as the owner wandered back over. Lou grunted his assent and started preparing it.

"Hey, Dr. Brown, how is Marty?" George's voice asked. Doc turned to see that George and Lorraine had come in while he was preoccupied. "We thought he was leaving to go back east."

"Some transportation issues came up," Doc explained. "He has to stay with me for a couple more days."

"Tell him we said hello," Lorraine said with a smile. "And not to be such a stranger. George and I owe him a lot." She and George looked at each other affectionately.

"I'll pass it on," Doc promised. He took the hot chocolate from Lou and headed out the door, narrowly avoiding Biff Tannen and his gang as they walked in. The gang made sure to give him a dirty look as he passed. "Yeah, you get out of here, you crackpot!" Biff yelled after him.

Doc rolled his eyes, ignoring the bully. He knew Biff was more talk than action lately -- George's punch had taken a lot of the fight out of him. But he also knew that Biff was inherently dangerous. He remembered Marty's description of "Hell Valley" and shuddered. _Thank God Marty and my other self were able to get the Almanac off of him. Someone like him shouldn't be allowed to wield power. Thank you George for decking him and putting him in his place. And thank you again Marty for inadvertently setting up that situation,_ Doc thought, getting behind the wheel and driving away.

He arrived home to find Marty outside, playing a game of fetch with Copernicus. The teen grinned as Doc parked outside his garage. "Hey Doc. Feeling better?" he asked.

"Yes. I saw George and Lorraine at the cafe, they send their greetings." Marty nodded. "I also have some things for you. A hot chocolate--" he passed the drink over to Marty, who looked grateful "-- and this." He pressed the pieces of letter into the teen's hand.

Marty frowned down at the scraps for a moment, then recognized them. His eyes went wide. "NO, Doc," he said firmly, handing the pieces back. "You have to keep 'em. You have to tape this thing back up."

"What? Marty, you know full well my stance on knowing about my own future. It's extremely dangerous!"

"What about what we're doing right now, fixing the DeLorean so I can go back in time and stop you from dying?"

"That's different. That's an unnatural death and could have repercussions on the future. After all, I'm not supposed to be in the past in the first place, dead or alive."

Marty stared at him intensely. "Doc, it isn't different," he said quietly. "Please, if you don't read this letter, we might have one of those paradox things on our hands. And if that doesn't happen, you're going to mess up my life. You have to read this."

Doc stared at him. There was something in Marty's eyes that he really hadn't seen before. Fear. _He really wants me to read this damn thing. But why? What's he afraid of?_

His thoughts went to the tape Marty had shown him on his first day in 1955. The ending of the film had quite disturbed Doc. His older self had seemed very scared for some reason. His voice and eyes gave it all away. But what was he scared of? Did the letter have something to do with it? Was Marty trying to prevent something in the future from happening?

Come to think of it, Marty had been acting abnormally all week. He had always excused himself, if possible, from further viewings of the tape. And on the night of the dance, he had said some rather cryptic things. _"I'm really going to miss you too."_ How could Marty miss him if he was going back to the future? He was still living in the future.

Right?

Marty had been trying to warn him about the future all week. Even nearly missing his ride while trying to shout a message to him on the clock tower. And that hug he had given him right before his intended departure. It had felt -- sad. Like this was the last time Marty would ever get to see him. At the time, Doc had chalked it up to apprehension over the possible failure of the time machine to send him home. But now. . . . _Did Marty mean _I_was dead in the future?_

That didn't make sense either. If he had died in the future, how could he be about to die in the past? Could the him in the past be a slightly younger him than the one whom Marty was worried about? It was enough to make your head spin.

He brought his attention back to Marty. The teen was still staring at him, looking quite frightened. "Marty," he said softly, "did I read this letter before you and my older self came back?"

Marty nodded. "It's important, Doc. Your older self knows that."

That settled it. "All right, I'll read it. But I'm destroying it immediately afterward," he told the teen firmly.

Marty smiled, looking rather smug for some reason. "Great. I'll grab some tape."

"You want me to read it right now?"

"Yeah."

"I was thinking of waiting until we finished our repair work on the DeLorean. We can't afford to waste time with that."

Marty's smile did a flip-flop. "For this we can. I'll even help you out."

Doc sighed, realizing Marty wasn't going to stop bugging him until he read it. "Fine. Get some tape." He walked over to a table and carefully spread out the pieces.

Putting the letter back together was tedious work, even with Marty's help. Doc was tempted to quit a couple of times, but Marty always pulled him back. He supposed that if he really was supposed to read the letter, he might as well just get it over with.

Finally, it was done. Doc picked up the completed document, giving Marty a look before he read it.

_Dear Dr. Brown,_

_On the night I go back in time, you will be shot by terrorists. Please take whatever precautions are necessary to prevent this terrible disaster._

_Your friend,_

_Marty_

Doc stared at the letter. Shot? By terrorists? Why? And for what? Did it have to do with the time machine?

He looked over at Marty, who was looking over his shoulder. "Terrorists?" he whispered.

Marty nodded, grimacing. "You do some really dumb things in the future, Doc."

"I should say." Doc picked up the letter with trembling hands. And to think he had been determined to destroy it! Not now. He'd keep that letter to 1985, and probably beyond, as a reminder of the friend who had risked the future for his life. As for the questions, they would be answered in due time. He didn't dare ask Marty for fear of somehow disrupting the time-line. He just had to make sure he was ready for the terrorists, and all would stay on track. Maybe they made bullet-proof clothing in the future.

Reverently, he folded the letter and put it in his pocket. Then he turned to Marty and gave him a hug. "Thank you."

"Thank _you_," Marty said, squeezing back. "I didn't even think that coming back might screw up _that_."

"Understandable. You've had a lot of other things on your mind. Good thing you pushed me into reading it. We really _could_ have had a paradox on our hands." He frowned, a final question occurring to him. "I must admit, I'm at a loss as to how to explain my reversal to your own younger self, when he arrives in 1985. You know how much of a stickler I am to doctrine."

Marty grinned. "Just tell him, 'what the hell.' I know you're a human being Doc, I'll understand. Hell, I'll be grateful."

Doc nodded. "All right, back to work on the DeLorean. No point in saving me from the first death only to die a second." Marty nodded, becoming serious. "Hand me that screwdriver over there."

The End


End file.
